Page 10 (1/2)

"What is it?" Batiste asked

"It’s a trailer park," Max said loudly through his ht; we had no choice We couldn’t catch up to the bus on foot And if we somehow did, there was no e could kick the cadets out of our bus We had to go and seek shelter

It didn’t keep Sahalia fro the whole way

Niko had to carry Josie It did not look as easy as it looks in the movies He had to stop and rest a lot and I was afraid his mask would come off

The little kids were all clustered around me and I did not blame them; it was really scary

Sometio into the basement to flip the switches I was scared because the bases there in the darkness You couldn’t see them but you could feel them Flattened boxes, Dad’s old tools, the laer--none of it scary with the lights on, but the thought of it all just lurking there madein the shadoaiting to grabdown the road was like going into the dark base in the shadows

There was likely ain the shadows It was statistically probable

Maybe you are wondering if we didn’t have flashlights We did

But Niko wouldn’t let us use theht call attention to ourselves

(And call an O ht frohts Which was not very much

We cah the trailer graveyard

There was blood on one of the trailers and a lot of clothes out on the ground in between two others, all of them trampled into the mud Purposely trampled, it seemed to me

There were empty food cans and bottles from all kinds of drinks scattered everywhere

Some of the trailers had furniture pulled halfway out the s and doors Like people had tried to take their easy chairs or iven up

A dead lady sat in a doorway in a housedress stuck to her body with blood

Ulysses started to cry again and Max took his hand

"We’re al his friend

There were lights on in a trailer we passed I could hear an oldcalled, "Let’s Give The to Talk About," by Bonnie Raitt

We didn’t knock

Niko was having a hard tiht of it before and offered but I was too scared, I guess

Finally Max pointed to a baby-blue trailer on the fringe of the other trailers

It was dark but there wasn’t any blood and the eren’t broken I could see plastic over the s inside Another good sign

Max stepped up on the step and knocked on the door

"Auntie Jean!" he yelled "Auntie Jean?"

At first nothing

And then he pounded on the door "Auntie Jean, it’s ht at the corner of the , the drape pulled away and a lady’s hairline and eye and eyebrow appeared

"Go away! I don’t got nothing," she yelled

"Let us in!" he shouted

"What do you want?" she yelled

"It’s me! It’s me, Max! Max Skolnik! Ji, a cloud of cigarette sh the crack

At that moment, I did not notice old tooth

"It’s me, Auntie Jean!" Max said

And she threw open the door

And we got inside somewhere safe, thank God

This Jean lady cried for a real long ti into his white-blond hair until it looked kind of tan

I am pretty sure she was drunk

It was crowded in there, and s nonstop because the smoke kills the coht! Cautiously, we took off our protective gear and everyone was okay

This was very good inforarettes everywhere, flowing out of ashtrays and jars and stacked up on paper plates and old issues of Star News azine There were also a bunch of sether, with the smoke, made it smell pretty dense in there Flowers and vanilla and cranberry and dive-bar drunks

I helped Niko and Jean get Josie up onto the bed in the back

After we got Josie on the bed, Niko just slu

"It’s okay," I said to hi you could have done"